Today's Teaching Tuesday blog is about the first day of school. We are also including it here to close out our Friday Updates, as we "went live" today!

These last two weeks, while very busy, have been pleasantly reminiscent of my former life in technology where the week before going live with a system brought a flurry of activity and some late nights!

An idea or problem had presented itself: Sciency/math, gifted kids looking for an educational experience where they can be themselves with other kids.

The problem was analyzed, solutions were brainstormed and a path was selected: Open a school that challenges these kids at their own level, catering to their interests while providing the range of educational experiences they will need in adulthood.

An implementation plan was defined: Aah, the project plan. That's what sat behind the Friday updates. The project plan included the curriculum, the build out of the space, the hiring of the faculty, the purchasing curriculum, materials and furniture, marketing the school and going through the admissions process are some of the top-line tasks of our project plan.

The project budget was established: Where is the money coming from and how much is this all going to cost? Scenarios were run and contingency plans were defined.

Identify and manage risks: The biggest risk in this plan was permitting by the county. We assumed a realistic certain number of weeks, but there was a real risk that the County could take longer to approve the plan and give us the green light to commence construction.

Implementation takes place: This is where everyone working on the project rolls up his or her sleeves and gets to work.

Regular executive updates against the project plan: The families who signed contracts and committed to coming to the school is who we answer to. We made a commitment to be ready to open school on September 8. The Friday Updates were our weekly updates on our progress.

Issues: There is no project where issues don't present themselves. There were construction issues - the light that lined the collaboration area was delayed by one month, a mistake in the plan had the cabinetry being installed after the inspections, but needed to be installed before so that the county could inspect the plumbing, a vendor changed their interface. These are some of the issues that came up during the project. The key is to manage through them: Manage the budget, manage the scope, make decisions quickly, rework the plan.

System testing: This is the area that was the most difficult to perform. Software testing makes sense. But how do you test with kids? We tested our ideas through the observation sessions of the admissions process, through socials with the families over the summers, by having regular communications and by asking the faculty we had recruited. Anything that allowed us to get feedback as quickly as possible, was how we tested our ideas.

Bug fixes: If there were things we learned about through our testing process, we made course corrections.

User Acceptance Testing: Open Houses before the start of school! We could see the kids interacting with the space, with the teachers and with each other.

Pre-production: There was one step we had in software, the Go/No Go decision, where you determined if the software was ready to implement. This was not a luxury we had. School was starting for this group of kids, so prioritization became paramount. For example, would neat architectural details hanging from the ceiling make things more beautiful? Yes! Do we have the time to install them? No. Are they critical to the students' learning? No. Therefore, they get moved to after school starts. Or, it's the week before school starts and the whiteboards haven't arrived. Do teachers need whiteboards? Yes! Are the whiteboards critical to the students' learning experience? Yes! So? We improvise. Buy whiteboard panels from Home Depot and screw them into the walls.

Production implementation/Go-Live: That was today! We had excited teachers and excited kids show up at school today. We were all a little nervous because we weren't sure how it would all come together. Did it come together? Yes! Today's first day went as well as it could go.

The parallels between starting a school and software development projects are astounding! That's why I strongly believe in what we're doing in our school - teaching kids how to solve problems. Whether the problems are engineering problems, math problems, community challenges or designing experiments, giving kids the challenge, but not the answer or the predetermined design and letting them work through it, find issues, find the fixes and continue to work through those challenges is what we believe will serve them best in life as they grow up. Whether it's the scientific method, the engineering design problem or the math steps to solving a problem, it's all variations on the same theme.

When I think about what it was about my education that best prepared me for my career (or should I say careers?), it was the ability to take a problem that has no clear answer, structure a solution, and work through the solution, while dedicating time to communicating with the people who are impacted by the work that I am doing.

These are the two weeks of finishing touches. Furniture continues to arrive, we are now able to see and anticipate what kids will be doing in the space and we make tweaks to get to our vision. Large scale items completed this week include our fence and the signs at the front. The cafe is now furnished, the Chromebooks are charging and the software is being installed on the desktops (yes - we're more of a 3-to-1 school when it comes to the computer-to-student ratio).

Teachers are moving into their new homes and we've been trying out new furniture arrangements.

One significant announcement we have to make is on our math teacher! After months of recruiting, Mr. Allan Michaels accepted the Mathematics teaching position. Allan holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Mary Washington University and has 15 years of math teaching experience at Prince William County Schools. He holds a middle-school math and science teaching license for Virginia. He brings a broad range of teaching experience having taught both gifted students, students with learning differences, as well as single-gender classes. Outside of the classroom, Mr. Allan was the Vex Robotics design coach and chess club sponsor. Known for making his own manipulatives and games, we're thrilled to have him join the team. Most recently, Mr. Allan and his co-teacher won the Virginia Department of Education Excellence in Co-Teaching Demonstrations Site Initiative to mentor, provide resources and materials to other schools, including videos on co-teaching methods.

We'll be continuing to move in this weekend and get ready for classes. We're excited to see Academy families at the Academy Open House on Monday.

In Old Town

Student BodyWe held our third and last social for the school year this past Saturday. The education team at Gadsby's Tavern and the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary led us through a very informative and enjoyable program. This was just a preview of the field trips to come!

The turnout was fantastic with just three students not able to attend. We missed you! At the Apothecary and at the Tavern we learned about history, science and the way of life in the 18th century. Most importantly we worked on learning each other's names! The kids also got a chance to taste the food for next year and we got their seal of approval, so we're good to go on the food. Another item checked off - School Lunches. We closed out a lovely afternoon by playing 18th century games - Nine Pins and Blind-Man's Bluff!

Furniture & CurriculumI realized that while I've been writing about all of the furniture we have been purchasing, receiving and assembling, we didn't have any visuals. The first four photos where we're loading in computers are from a few weeks ago. Who said only tech companies start out in garages? STEM schools do too!

The assembly process really picked up this week with Mr. Maxime's help, who assembled 90 chairs! Chairs are done. Now onto tables, bookcases and engineering workbenches!

On the curriculum front, we purchased the Earth Science and Engineering curricula and licenses!

In Oakton

In Reston

ConstructionAll doors now have glass and have been hung, the cabinets are close to being complete and exit signs have been hung. The lights are all up. Bathrooms now have toilets, sinks and partitions. And odds and ends are complete. Countertops get installed next week and the air conditioning finally gets turned on!

Speaking of traveling, I will be hopping across the pond to teach my kids about their Irish heritage and to learn about the flora and fauna (and some history of course!) of the Scottish Highlands. Our next progress update will be on August 21, where we will be ready to welcome all of our teachers back (or initially) to school!!!

We are in our final stretch before school starts. With a year of planning behind us, we have six weeks to go before the first day of school. This week's update will cover all aspects of the plan.

Construction:On the construction side, the building is really taking shape. The walls are being painted, the lights are being hung and the cabinets are being put together and installed, the floor is being ground, doors have been hung, and bathroom fixtures are starting to go in. Now is also the time that utilities get set up: Internet and phone service has been turned on, the meter for the gas has been set and the equipment has been ordered by Virginia Power. Fabulous is the word to describe how we feel as we see it coming together.

Furniture:The appliances have arrived and furniture continues to arrive. Speaking of furniture, a huge body of work that we started this week has been assembling furniture. We have assembled over 60 chairs and have begun working on the tables for the Engineering Lab.

Student Body:We have a full class of 6th and 7th graders with 10 students and eight students in the 4th and 5th grade class, for a total of 18.

Faculty:Mr. Ryan is planning on teaching Math in addition to Computer Science. However, we recently received two strong candidates for the math position that we are considering. We'll update the parents and children should we select one of these candidates.

We are finalizing plans for our faculty's Professional Development, scheduled to take place the week of fall break and we're planning our training and preparation for the two weeks before school starts.

Two weeks ago I sat down to finalize the school lunch menu. We had a framework, requirements and a plan. As I sat down to begin work, an email popped up from one of our parents with a recommendation for a local catering company that specializes in yummy, locally-sourced, all-natural food. It was exactly what I had been looking for. Serendipity. We began the conversation two weeks ago and ended the week by reviewing a proposal tailored for our school. We have the final step to go - the taste test. Stay tuned.

MaterialsThe drums arrived from Africa this week! We use or buy many things from all over the world, but there is something special about materials arriving from overseas just for you. We can't wait to share them with the kids.

We started receiving students' book recommendations for our library and there are a number of titles that are new to me. I can't wait to produce Ideaventions Academy's own Book World of books we love.

Curriculum & FacultyWe selected the foreign language curriculum and instructor! Like in Art, we decided to partner with a company that shares our teaching philosophy, Language Stars. We believe that Language Stars' methodology of play-based, immersive learning is the best way for kids to learn a foreign language.

We also would like to announce that Rachel Marrion will be teaching PE. Ms. Rachel loves sports, having coached softball, soccer, volleyball and basketball. She enjoys trying new exercise routines and you will always find her in the middle of a game.

ConstructionConstruction continued this week. Here are the main highlights:

We have made significant progress over the last two weeks on many different fronts. Let's go through each area:

Construction and BuildingYou may be wondering why there aren't any pictures. Well, unless you look up, not much has visually changed in the last two weeks. All of the work has been up in the ceiling and on the roof. The sprinkler work is done and all of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) work has been the focus of the last two weeks. There was no HVAC system or vents in the space, so it's all being constructed from scratch. So, it's the most complicated and foundational in what we need to be comfortable, but we can't really "see" the progress.

We are still on target for the beginning of August for the completion.

We continue to purchase materials and furniture that we need for next year. The desktops, monitors and keyboards for the Computer Science and Math labs are here and waiting for their new homes. Cafe furniture, bookcases, chairs, and desks have been ordered and will arrive in two weeks. The cabinetry and signs are also on order.

Student BodyWe have decided to close admissions at this time until final decisions are made with the children that are currently going through the admissions process. Our original target was 24 students and we are currently at 17 students that will be attending the Academy in the fall, with nine in 6th and 7th grades and eight in 4th and 5th grades. With the pending students, our classes would round out to 10 students in each of the 4th/5th and 6th/7th grade classes.

If you are still considering the Academy for the fall, we will consider opening a section if at least four students go through the admissions process and offered acceptance.

Schedule and CurriculumWe also finalized the schedule for both sections (4th/5th and 6th/7th) and will be communicating it to families this weekend. We continue to work on the curriculum, field trips and special events. This week Dr. M, Ms. Rachel and myself had the pleasure of seeing the labs at the Library of Congress where books are preserved and deacidified.

We also finalized our PE location and will be renting studio space from the Greater Washington Dance Center where we'll have PE on days when we can't be outside or when we need a sound system.

Faculty: Our highlight for the week is that Mr. Nick Franson has joined our team as our Engineering Teacher! Be sure to check out his bio on our Faculty page. Ms. Jessie and Ms. Juliana spent this week at the JASON National Educators Conference in training.

Construction: It's great to really start to see the building coming together! There has been lots of progress and we're still on track with our early August completion date.

Curriculum: We completed our syllabi for the Computer Science classes, whose curricula are developed by Ideaventions Academy.

Other: We continue to book our field trips for next year. On Monday, September 21, all grades will be traveling to Calleva for a day of team building and on February 22, we'll all be going to see a play about the Underground Railroad at GMU.

We'll be closing for the 4th of July next Friday and the Friday updates will resume on July 10. Have a great weekend!

Our major accomplishment to highlight this week is that we completed the PE Curriculum and Syllabus! We have spent so much time researching and reading about Physical Education as we worked to formulate the details behind our philosophy as a school, then the syllabus. Physical Education is a time for students to learn to enjoy being physically active. Through game-based, cooperative games, students enjoy getting exercise and getting their bodies moving. Skill development is taught just-in-time and on an individual level. Learning fair play and social interactions is also a key component of the PE curriculum. The daily nature walk also involves physical fitness through walking and complements the PE curriculum.

When looking at students, there is a wide range of physical abilities and physical fitness. We therefore knew we had to approach PE in the same way we approach Math and Language Arts, have it be fun, engaging and with a purpose, so that each individual child is challenged to his or her individual needs. We are now working on getting contracts in place for the locations.

Construction continues and inspections passed to start closing in the walls. Yay!

Categories

Ideaventions Academy admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin and all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded to or made available to students at the school.

Ideaventions® is a registered servicemark of Ideaventions, LLC. All rights reserved.